In connection with the Committee’s ongoing theme of Youth Unemployment, the Committee will have the opportunity to scrutinise the work of a selection of Colleges and Apprenticeship Providers across the District regarding the support they offer their students in terms of Careers advice.
· Riseholme College, North Carlton (Bishop Burton College)
Jeanette Dawson OBE, Chief Executive and Principal
· Gainsborough Foundry, Bridge Street, Gainsborough
Katie Easey, Chief Executive
· Lincoln & Gainsborough Adult Training, Lincoln
Kevin Leeming Recruitment Manager
will be in attendance to each give a presentation aimed at answering the Committee’s previously prepared questions, detailed in Appendix A to this agenda.
This will be followed by a period of supplementary questioning from the Committee
Written responses have been requested from those organisations which were unable to attend and these will be provided to Members under separate cover.
Minutes:
In connection with the Committee’s ongoing theme of Youth Unemployment, the Committee had the opportunity to scrutinise the work of a selection of Colleges and Apprenticeship Providers across the District regarding the support they offered their students in terms of Careers advice. Katie Easey, Chief Executive of CLIP, Kevin Leeming, Recruitment Manager LAGAT, and Michelle Guest, Director of Education and Training, Gainsborough College, were in attendance to answer the Committee’s previously prepared questions, by way of presentations and a period of supplementary questioning.
The questions which had been posed were as follows: -
• What steps do you take to ensure relevant career’s advice is offered to your young people and how do you measure its effectiveness?
• What links do you have in place to provide effective work experience for young people and what relationships do you have with businesses to provide suitable exposure to employment opportunities for your young people?
• What positive actions do you take to raise the aspirations of all young people with regard to both academic and vocational qualifications and how do you measure their effectiveness?
• What efforts do you make to track the progress of young people once they have left your establishment and what use is made of any information you collate?
· What implications do Data Protection regulations have on ‘latent learners’ i.e. those that disappear?
• What measures do you have in place to monitor the retention of learners the destination of any leavers and the quality of provision?
• What do you think are the key issues facing young people in securing relevant and sustainable education, employment or training opportunities and what more could the education/vocational system do to address these?
The Chairman welcomed Ms Easey to the meeting and invited her to make her presentation to Members. This was followed by similar presentations from Mr Leeming and Ms Guest. [1]
During the presentations and the supplementary questioning the following points were noted: -
· Parental Buy-in and raising aspirations was a must.
· The geography of the area, and the lack of public transport was a continuous barrier to work placements, particularly for young people from low income families
· The loss of the Career Service had had a significant impact
· The loss of connexions had had a significant impact, meaning many young people did not now have access to impartial advice.
· Data sharing agreements needed to be in place as it was difficult to track people or share information
· Lack of NEET monitoring
· A brokerage service for referrals would be of assistance
· A greater need to engage with local employers and build relationships
· An acknowledgement that smaller employers struggled to assist with placements for a variety of reasons
· Careers advice provided by schools was less impartial and likely to be more academic focussed, not catering for all
· It was hoped the Apprenticeship levy would encourage more employers
· Difficult to find high quality suitable work placements
· The Gainsborough College was having to tailor the courses they offered due to their main feeder not achieving attainment levels
· Viability was becoming more difficult due to funding changes
· Positive role models were important if a young person was to be successful
The Chairman thanked the guest speakers for their invaluable input and wished them and their organisations well for the future.